May 30, 2007, 9:47 GMT
Kabul - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed more than 20 suspected Taliban fighters while four police were killed in a series of ambushes and attacks by militants and a raid on a militant compound, officials said Wednesday.
Government and coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan killed six suspected Taliban militants during an operation early Wednesday in the mountains near the city of Jalalabad, the coalition said.
Intelligence led the forces to a compound suspected of housing local Taliban fighters where they came under fire, the coalition said.
A militant was also wounded in the ensuing firefight and four more were detained, a coalition statement said. No coalition casualties were reported.
In western Farah province, suspected Taliban members attacked the district headquarters of Delaram Tuesday afternoon and the ensuing gunbattle left three policemen dead and eight wounded, Zemarai Bashary, Interior Ministry spokesman, said at a press conference.
Twelve Taliban fighters were also killed in the fighting, he said.
Bashary added that one more police officer was killed when Taliban fighters attacked the headquarters of Pusht-e-Rood, another district of Farah, early Wednesday.
He said several Taliban were also killed in the firefight, which lasted for more than three hours.
The Taliban in a statement posted on its website also confirmed the fighting in Pusht-e-Rood and said only one Taliban fighter was killed and another wounded. The statement added that four police vehicles were destroyed and several government forces were killed.
Separately, the Afghan Defence Ministry said their forces, backed by US soldiers serving under the coalition banner, killed two militants and arrested three others in two separate engagements Tuesday in eastern Nuristan provinc.
Afghan and coalition forces on Tuesday also detained three suspected al-Qaeda militants in a raid on two separate compounds in Khost province, which is also located in eastern Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces started a new operation, dubbed Hoover, in the Zherai district of the southern province of Kandahar, Lieutenant Colonel Angela Billings, ISAF spokeswoman, said at a press conference Wednesday.
The operation, which brought together about 500 Afghan and NATO forces, started earlier this week and was aimed at rooting out the militants from the area, Billings said.
Southern Kandahar along with its neighbouring provinces, once the main strongholds of the Taliban, has been the centre of Taliban-led militancy since the ouster of the fundamentalist Islamic movement in late 2001.
The violence so far this year, has left about 1,800 people dead, mostly insurgents.
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